Sunday, May 9, 2010

Family Guy an animated television series on Fox aired an extremely transphobic episode on Mother's Day. The episode called "Quagmire's Dad" was about a big life change for his father, a recognized Navy war hero veteran. The episode is filled with homophobic and transphobic language and judgment.

It starts off with the father coming to town and Quagmire's friends commenting on how "gay" the father seemed, because he exhibited gay stereotypes including an (effeminate voice, desire to entertain, drinks Cosmo's, etc). When Quagmire confronts his dad he admits he admits he is not gay but really a woman trapped inside a man's body.

Quagmire asks for support from the Griffin's, the wife Lois offers that her husband Peter will go to the hospital for the sex change operation. Lois and Peter remark that the whole thing seems "pretty gay" but that it is "obviously weird" and Lois finishes off by telling the two men that they should "enjoy the circus" referring to the hospital visitation.

In the waiting room there is the talk of "he/she" and the "penis being chopped off" an obvious disregard of using correct pronouns and propagation of the myth that transwomen remove their penis.

When Quagmire's father transitions she takes on the name Ida and is invited over to the Griffin's for dinner. She brings a pie but Lois immediately tells her daughter to throw it away. This plays on the irrational fears of interacting with trans people. Over dinner Peter asks the inappropriate question "do you miss your penis?" and asks about the legitimacy of her "knockers".

When Ida meets the Griffin's dog, they develop a relationship. The dog (Brian) is thrilled at meeting a new and wonderful woman but gets disgusted and vomits when he finds out she is transgender.

Real issues came up during the episode which explored issues such as orientation & gender identity, coming out, surgery, and family and societal acceptance of transition. Unfortunately the show misrepresented facts about the transgender experience and instead exploited trans people for a few laughs.

Fox accepts feedback on their shows, please tell them transphobic material does not belong on the air and that they should pull the show.askfox@fox.com

60 comments:

Okay, I'll just come out and say it: you are taking this too seriously. As a transman I will say it again: you are taking this too seriously.

Family Guy is not homophobic or transphobic in the least. If you've watched any other episodes you'd know this. Heck, the baby Stewie is a closeted homosexual.

The purpose of this episode, as with all of the FG episodes on controversial issues, it to put the moral in a way a moronic, douchebag would understand: in humor. Getting the point across in a way that's not too heavy, that'll make a homophobic/transphobic person actually sit through the whole thing to understand the big picture.

And in today's society that is much needed to get through to people. I say kudos to Seth McFarlene. I enjoyed this ep quite a lot.

I agree with casey that humor is definitely a good thing nowadays and I also tend to enjoy things that make jokes about homosexuality in a not too offensive way, but this episode might have taken it a bit too far..

I like ribald humor and have enjoyed Family Guy from its inception, but as I really didn't find the episode funny. A little offensive and downright stupid maybe. The vomiting sequence was BEYOND idiotic. All in all a disappointingly sloppy episode.

I'll second Casey: Of course it's tasteless. Family Guy is not about sophisticated humor. It beats you over the head with it. The outrageous reactions might even make people examine their own terrible reactions to transpeople, as one of my friends pointed out.

On a more practical note, complaining to Fox that this is an offensive episode will make about as much sense as complaining to a movie theater that your popcorn is salty.

So, it was okay for them to be racist, misogynist, bigoted, xenophobic, anti-semitic, and classist... But it can't be homophobic or transphobic? Come on. Family Guy and their creators and talent are all LGBQTABCDEFG friendly and have always stated such. They have, in the many years they've been on air, lightly touched on gay jokes and the like. This is no different.

I think the episode was disgusting. As a gay man, I found the "Peter becomes gay episode" funny because it poked fun at stereotypes but this was downright hateful and reinforced so many stereotypes about transgender people.

I don't think anyone is suggesting that some politically incorrect humor isn't funny. It's good to be able to laugh at ourselves and others within moderation. But this was over the top, there are ways to make a funny episode involving gay and trans folks without exploitation.

I am disappointed in two things: 1) The only time trans women ever get any exposure in television is when a cis woman or cis man plays one as either the butt of a joke or a stereotype (violent, prostitute, etc). 2) This episode could have been enlightening. The interactions between Quagmire and Ida were good and the best any of us could have hoped for. I liked when Ida said "I'm not changing my past. I'm changing my future" when Quagmire said that he always saw his dad as a manly war hero. But the ignorance of everyone in that episode (except Quagmire) was so over-the-top. And Ida ending up having sex with Brian, a dog, just reinforced the false belief that trans women are sexually perverted. I don't think viewers are going to change their minds about their transphobic views after watching this episode.

I'm not transgendered, but I am intersexed, so perhaps I am not in a position to to empathize, but having watched Family Guy for years, I've never known them not to offend *somebody*.

Perhaps the problem is when one person in a given community is offended, then feels like they can speak for the whole community. When they made fun of Marlee Matlin for being deaf, she was a great sport about it, but "the deaf community" suddenly was outraged.

Whatever happened to being an individual?

In other words, I don't see them making fun of all deaf people, just Marlee Matlin. I don't see them making fun of all transgendered people, just Cleveland's dad.

Get ya off ya shoulders and get over it. It's a good show that has done a decent job covering gay issues. I agree with what someone else said about how they have made fun of every other type of person. That's how these shows work. Pick a f*ckin' cause and learn to choose your battles people. Come onnnn!

They make fun of everyone across the board - if it were a constant or singular storyline that perpetuated harmful views that would be different...but it is all in good fun and not to be taken that seriously.

I am a huge fan of the show. Sometimes it makes me squirm uncomfortably, but normally I laugh out loud. However, this episode wasn't at all intelligent. Every segment of society should be open to a little humor at their expense, but there was there was no moment of that Family guy is known for. Not cool.

Yes the show makes fun of a variety of groups, but they went out of their way to take a group who gets maimed, beaten and even killed for something as simple as trying to use a bathroom to sex offenders. It's actually disappointing that they've bothered to try to be at least a bit more balanced with issues like gay marriage. I wonder which lazy writer thought pulling out old, stale, mean spirited views of transsexuals was the way to go for this episode.

Evert time I come to this website I always end up thinking that the author is overreacting. I wonder whether overreactions like this do LGBT people more harm than good by making us look like angry folks out of touch with reality. It certainly detracts focus from actual concerns. Shame.

Yeah..felt like every other episode of Family Guy.Black, asian, hispanic, gay, straight, bigots, religion, Jesus Christ...the show would have lasted only 1 season if every ethnic, religious, political, sexual group took offense on what they said...

C'mon folks, It IS "Fammily Guy" after all. they go overboard about every issue they've had. Actually, one way to bring about change is to force people to see the truth so much that it is impossible to go on ignoring the issue without publicly showing their stupidly. It also allows some people to openly discuss an issue where before they would have been embarrased or afraid to speak about it when it might offend friends or family. Remember the old show biz axiom, "any publicity is good publicity".

I've watched Family Guy for years. I've never been offended by an episode until now. For one, I could see the "vomiting scene" coming from a mile away. That's almost always how the characters on TV who unknowingly sleep with a transsexual person react upon finding out. In reality transsexual women are actually murdered in those situations. I was somewhat prepared for the usual offensive vomiting. But Brian didn't just vomit, he vomited for an extended period of time. Classic Seth McFarland to try to make something funny funnier by extending it an absurd amount of time. Only this time it wasn't funny to begin with, so he only extended the awfulness of it.

All this episode succeeded in doing was to say transphobia is funny. It didn't succeed in making fun of transphobia or point out the errs of it as satire is supposed to do.

When Family Guy portrays racism, or classism or homophobia it's funny because it shows how absurd it is. They failed to do that here.

Can ANYONE name a character on Family Guy that was the center of attention came off as positive? Everytime theere was a character that had a storyline they did nothing positive...oddly enough ...except for Chris. It's usually the person that he is with that acts the fool.Peter gets a new black best friend he imagines the black guy having his way with his wife.Peter gets a restaurant he doesn't want physically challenged people in there.Family Guy is a parody of the usual family sows where Daddy knows best and mother is pure and big sister is beautiful and precious. have you SEEN the way they treat Meg? NO ONE ever behaves properly. It's usually some outside party that corrects the main protagonist of the episode.

So..we were expecting a positive way to talk about anybody queer positive on THAT show?Here's is a hint: THEY ARE ROLE MODELS FOR DOING WRONG! THEY A GOOFUS AND GOOFUS. No Galant!

As the actor who played the girl with autism said, it's about making fun of yourself and learning to laugh and not just go through life milking the sympathy train - obviously, you have to be secure enough in your own being to laugh at yourself...which many aren't.

I agree with a few of the posters here - Family Guy has been very consistent with making fun of topics such as obesity, 'red-necks', Catholics, nerds, black, asian, autistic and Jewish people, etc. The point of the show is to highlight and personify the ignorance of mainstream society, as with what the Simpsons had done in the 80/90s.

At the end of the episode, Quagmire DID show acceptance and there was a heart to heart and he STILL loved his father regardless. The show's creator is in no way homophobic and has been a huge supporter of gay rights.

There are many serious and important issues facing the LGBT communities. Dealing with a cartoon isn't one of them. Pick your battles people before devoting resources to them. When even winning won't amount to jack, then choose a different fight.

Family Guy has a way of reaching a level of satire most do not understand, and in response, do not like. It just so happens that the level in question is the exploitation of the moronic and how it is a fundamental part of our existence. Not all stories end in a nice big hug or with some enlightened understanding that changes views. Family Guy realizes this and employs it to their benefit, thus gaining humor from it. It is the fact that enlightenment is absent that we find humorous. Most of the responses (not necessarily here) to this episode by the LGBT community have been so-so and that is understandable: when satirizing something near and dear to so many people, they become more defensive than if it was over something less personal. By assuming this episode was damaging or problematic causes one to miss the point: that the statement the episode is making is realistic in its treatment of the issue. There are still several people uncomfortable with not only transsexuals but also homosexuals in the world; therefore, to nicely tighty up the ends with some bias moral message would deride the subtly in the actual message being conveyed that a logical, reasoning individual would be able to pick up on: there is nothing to be stated but only shown. To show the discomfort and phobia toward transsexual individuals, the viewed is able to see the dilemma instead of being patronized over why it is wrong; the old "actions speak louder than words" ideal is the main point. I've heard the entire series be called tacky, crude, uncivilized, etc. and that is what it goes for because that is the way in which most people think. Not every thought is good and tolerate that we think; by showing this, it makes us deal with our own interpretations of those around us and proves to be more enlightening than if it was beating us over the head with a blatant message.

What everyone is forgetting is that straight people find transgendered people "weird", even gay people need to get used to it. My BEST friend is FTM and it took me years to cope with. Family Guy portrayed how a "typical" low class family would react to the news that someone they know is transgendered. They act stupid, make tasteless jokes, but the one person it mattered to understand was Quagmire and after he got over his insecurity he did the most important thing, and loved his parent! As for Ida having sex with Bryan and being a pervert...BRIAN HAS SEX WITH STRAIGHT GIRLS CONSTANTLY! Does that make straight women perverts? His cousin(a dog!) has sex with a foreign gay man, does that make foreign gay men perverts? What we all need to realize and embrace here is that IT'S A F**KING CARTOON!

People, it's satire. They were purposely 'making fun' of a subject to raise the public's awareness of it. If anything, the show was using it's characters as a way of showing the irrational 'fear' that many people have of trans-gender people is absolutely unnecessary. Family Guy does this sort of thing ALL THE TIME, whether it's about race, sexuality, etc. This is what they did in that episode. Plus, you calling for people to contact FOX to have the show pulled off the air makes you no better than those ridiculous Christian groups (the Parents TV Council) who always call for FOX to pull the show because it makes fun of Christian values. Also, I could see being upset if the episode ended with the characters continuing to 'bash' the trans-gender character, but it ended with Quagmire coming to terms with his father's decision and embracing their relationship.

why would you expect enlightenment from Family Guy. It's family Guy. I'm gay. I'm a person of color. And never once have I taken anything Family Guy has chosen to poke fun at as personal attack against the group. I mean if they chose to leave all sub-cultures and ethnic backgrounds other than the main stream alone all we would get is jokes about overweight white guys. By-the-way main character is a running joke that way. So calm down please. It's totally fine. They're not saying transwomen are gross. If anything the over-reaction should spell out how ridiculous a real persons fear might be.

OKAY SERIOUSLY, read up on the show and it's creator: Seth MacFarlane is an activist for gay and transgendered rights. He created Family Guy as a stereotype to show it's viewers a mockery of what America has become. In fact MacFarlane has a gay cousin and he became infuriated when some other family members suggested that 'curing' his cousin would be the way to go. That's what prompted his defense for LBGT rights.

I was going to post a rebuttal to this post, but I see almost all of the other commenters already did!

Honestly, you don't want to overreact to humor- don't be like the fundamentalist Muslims reacting to South Park.

Just like that case, you are upset about superficial aspects of the show, not the deeper message- Transphobia exists. The Griffin family portrayed it. and in case you don't watch the show, the Griffin family are not role models.

What was important was what Quagmire's father said, and that Quagmire grew to accept his new mother.

... and to the person who complained about Ida having sex with a dog, Brian is not exactly a dog. He is an anthropomorphic character, common in cartoons. He has relationships with human women all the time, it's not bestiality. Think of him as a man in his early thirties.

Oh please! Family guy makes fun of EVERYONE! This is NO different. They've made fun of african americans, gays, women, children (they have a pedophile as a regular character for goodness sake!) and every other type of person.

Why this is any different I have no idea?

It's nitpicking like this that makes me realize that the LGBT community (of which I am a member of) needs to re-evaluate which side of the fence they stand on and pick their battles wisely.

Family Guy has always been for the LGBT community and to whine and complain about it seems extremely counter-productive when there are so many bigger fish to fry in this country.

While some of the viewpoints within this article are valid (depending on one chooses to interpret them) I am surprised that the writer chose NOT to discuss any of the things the episode did "right". Just as the author feels trans people have been misrepresented, the suthor also chose to misrepresent this episode (and overall structure and style of this show).

I don't know whether to call it transphobia or satire. The things said and done in that episode where the typical (ignorant, hateful, & downright hurtful) reactions that most people have to transgendered people. The things that Peter and Lois said & did; Brian's exaggerated reaction to finding about Ida; even Quagmire's reaction to his own father's sex change are all things that I've heard come out of people's mouth. They're all ignorant and maybe the folks behind Family Guy were making fun of that and not people who identify as transgendered. Then again they could cruel & insensitive so who really knows?

The people who equate this with picking on ___... it's not the same. Transsexuals and transgender people are a ridiculed minority. Yes, Family Guy picks on everyone, but going on and on about how a transwoman is GROSSDISGUSTINGVOMITWORTHY is not the same as picking on, say, African Americans -- because it's UNDERSTOOD that picking on African Americans is wrong. People are only just beginning to think that MAYBE it isn't A-OK to discriminate and hate transpeople, and those are the most "progressive, liberal people."

To the majority, transpeople are fair game and always in season. That's why this is wrong. It's not picking on transpeople to pick on everyone; it's reinforcing the idea that picking on transpeople is normal and good for humor.

I am so glad someone else agrees (Thanks Casey!! well said)... Family guy makes fun of EVERYONE and thats the whole point.. I haven't watched the episode yet but now I can't wait, because its probably hilarious. People need to relax. (I will add that I am also a transman for reference and do NOT feel I'lm speaking out of turn, thanks)

These comments make me sick. I was expecting people to say things like "It's Family Guy, you're not going to win", but "It's Family Guy, so it's not a problem"? I was a fan of Family Guy during its unpopular first run, but recently it's been a shitshow on every topic, playing off of hateful stereotypes under the guise of "edginess". The fact that they talk about something does not make an episode a "satire" of the issue. I know they make fun of everyone - and this isn't my first problem with them. Shit like this does nothing but confirm the fear and ridicule that a lot of the Family Guy audience already treat trans people with.

how the hell is this offensive? its clever satire about how people treat transexuals. notice she's the only one there whos not crazy, and that brian was obviously on the right mind track about her as a person; but it satirizes it by showing regular people acting like retards.

I'll admit that the vomit was a little cliche. I expected more from them. Maybe they ran out of ideas or something >.> but Family Guy is far from homophobic. When we first met Quagmire's dad I actually thought, "Wow, seems like everyone on Family Guy is gay." A lot of the funnier characters (i.e. Stewie and Bruce) are gay.

Being transgender, I would have found it far more insulting and patronizing for Family Guy to disregard the ignorant, unintentionally hurtful and flat-out bigoted responses and epithets we are commonly subjected to when coming out. This program is constantly "offensive" and not PC which is why I generally avoid it. I made sure to look this particular episode up before making a judgment. I was most bothered by the lazy recycling of the "Oh no I slept with a transwoman" vomit gag from The Cleveland Show. All of the slurs were not something I wanted to hear but that is because Family Guy is not the type of program I typically enjoy, not because Family Guy had suddenly lost it's strong moral high ground.

I really appreciated the distinction being made between gender and sexuality. My own parents asked me if I was now a lesbian when coming out as trans. I had to explain to them that identifying as male doesn't alter my attraction to men.

"the myth that transwomen remove their penis..." Now, since I don't identify as a "transwoman," but as simply a woman, I can only speak for myself. While it is true that parts of my penis were used to create a clitoris and to line my vagina, I certainly DON'T think of myself as still having a penis. I know that some like to retain that link to their manhood, I am glad to be rid of my "penis."

As to the comments defending Family Guy. I like the show generally, but this episode was inexcusable. Nothing substantive was done to offset the impression that their is something wrong with transsexuals. Stuff like Brian's prolonged vomiting, his psychotic showering, the hateful comments...these all played to common bigoted views of transsexuals. This show was not satire, it was not mocking hate, it was not even really mocking "transgenders." It was mocking people with a legitimate medical issue. And it was playing to the worst stereotypes.

Brian's reaction seems a little unsettling because Brian is generally portrayed as one of the saner, more intellectual members of the Griffin clan. I wouldn't expect him to perpetuate myths and prejudices as much as some of the other characters would.

I can see both sides on this. Some people like Family Guy's brand of humor. Personally, I don't. But I think it's really wrong to tell people who are upset to "get over it." Just because some people are okay with it doesn't mean that everyone has to be.

Other than the puking scene I thought it was fine (not so much that I found that particular scene to be offensive, but more of that it was just a bit too much and over the top).

And as it has been said many times before, you have to take Family Guy with a grain of salt. They have presented people of the transgendered umbrella before (though I will admit with stereotypes rather intact) - for instance, Stewie cross-dresses in a few different episodes and in the one where they go to Texas and Brian dresses him up as a girl to protect him from the religious radicals, Stewie notes that he feels right for the first time (which I found a bit clever, though the gender-identity or sexual-orientation of Stewie is completely unclear despite the stereotypes that would quickly land him in the area of straight transgendered female or cross-dressing gay male), or the episode where Stewie goes to the future and Ron (Meg after transition) walks into the Griffin house and Peter tries to call him Meg.

I think the only stereotype they've possibly actually made truly stronger, though, is maybe the concept that transgender is a new level of gay... but all things considered, unless someone's to understand what is means to be trans, it's pretty hard to avoid or squash that one. (And while Lous's comments in the conversation with Quagmire and Peter about Ira's SRS are a bit offensive, they are ones that would be common ones made by the ignorant folks of society - which the Griffins certainly are - considering their reactions to people of color, different religions, alternative lifestyles, ect)

The episode may not have nearly as much merit as the rest of the show, and may be offensive in ways (but then, what episode of Family Guy isn't offensive?), but that's not a reason to start a wave of hate-mail to Fox or Seth McaFarlane.

Seth McFarlane said:"I can safely say that the transsexual community will be very, very happy with the "Quagmire" episode that we have coming up in a couple of months. It's probably the most sympathetic portrayal of a transexual character that has ever been on television, dare I say."

The thing is... he's probably right. Having a dog projectile vomit after having had sex with a "tranny", throwing out food that IT had prepared, and comparing them with sex offenders is mild compared to the way they're usually treated.

and it appears that some folks disagree. I am a very tolerant person. I think that this particular episode, for me at least was teh last straw w/ Mr. MacFarlane. He is continually attacking all marginalized people and that is not helping the world become tolerant and certainly not accepting of people who are percieved as different. To some people, Different equates with Afraid. Afraid to me results from lack of knowledge on a particular subject making it an unknown and worthy of an attack. Get a grip Seth!

As a trans guy (and I know there are not enough of us saying this) I absolutely agree that this episode was transphobic and misogynistic (and it's no secret that Family Guy has an issue with misogyny.) But if they did actually pull the episode? I would fear a Streisand effect, like the South Park "Trapped in the Closet" episode that was pulled and ended up getting even more attention.

May I be the only one to point out Quagmire's dad is NOT gay hes a trani. There is a difference. And the fact that Peter and the guys were saying he was "gay" was only to point out in the story line how femenine his Quagmire's dad was acting. Besides the fact that Seth Macfalane is an openly strong supporter of hommosexual rites. I dont think he would allow something so offensive to pass through his show. In my opinion your are seeing things that are just not there.

I think Seth McFarlane should publicly apologize for the offensive episode. I am a fan of Family Guy, but this went too far. I don't think the show should be pulled off the air permanently, but I do think some things need to be explained and Seth REALLY needs to address this, because the line between humor and insults was just crossed.